He had a craze for speed bike riding and was participating in the Saddle Sore challenge that required riders to cover around 1,500 km in 22 hours.

A 21-year-old engineering student from Kerala has been killed in a road accident in Karnataka while taking part in a two-wheeler ride challenge, police said. Mithun, a final year student of a local college at Pambady in this district, was riding his bike when he met with the accident near Chitradurga on the Bengaluru-Pune National Highway at 4 am yesterday, police said. He was killed on the spot after his two-wheeler rammed into a lorry going ahead of him when its driver applied sudden brake, police in Karnataka said.

Kerala police, quoting information provided by Mithun's family, said he had a craze for speed bike riding and was participating in the Saddle Sore challenge that required riders to cover around 1,500 km in 22 hours. The challenge is conducted by a US-based organisation.

Mithun had embarked on the journey on Tuesday evening telling his mother that he was going to neighbouring Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, police said. Police found a sketch of the route map of his planned trip -- Palakkad-Bengaluru-Pune -- from his home in nearby Ottapalam and some jottings on the risks involved, equipment needed for emergency and eatables such as chocolates to be carried.

A case of rash and negligent driving has been registered against the lorry driver, police said.